It’s A Customer-Centric World: Can Your Tech Stack Deliver on this Enterprise Mandate?
Anurag Lal, President and CEO of Infinite Convergence.
Providing digital customer experiences that help drive satisfaction and brand loyalty are table stakes for enterprises to remain relevant and competitive in the marketplace today. There is no doubt that in a digital-first era, creating digital experiences that engage customers and provide consistent experiences across channels is essential to improving business performance.
Consumers expect brands to provide exceptional customer experiences – an expectation which grew during the pandemic and continues to grow. To meet and exceed these expectations, enterprises are turning to technology designed to enhance relationships with customers. Omnichannel platforms are becoming a pivotal part of customer experience (CX) strategies, allowing enterprises to provide the seamless, engaging, contextually relevant, and personalized digital interactions that drive customer satisfaction and build loyalty.
According to CCW Digital’s 2020 Consumer Preferences survey, over 58% of consumers care more about the customer experience when deciding which companies to support and buy from following COVID-19.
Recognizing the growing mandate to deliver superior CX, enterprises are prioritizing innovative solutions designed to enhance customer experiences. According to Omdia’s annual Enterprise Insights survey of 6,000 IT professionals, 76% of enterprises consider the customer experience more important now and 73% of respondents said that technology platforms are “very important” or “important” to their digital strategies over the next 18 months.
Innovative omnichannel platforms designed to build meaningful customer-centric engagement at scale should be a key component of enterprise CX strategies. Easy-to-use low-code/no-code development platforms like NetSfere Omnichannel allow enterprises to integrate channels and features that meet customers where they are, delivering interactions that increase customer loyalty, building lifetime customer value and profitability.
Omnichannel platforms make it easy for brands to provide a consistent CX across channels and touchpoints. The technology also allows brands to personalize interactions with product recommendations, relevant offers and tailored messaging. According to data from McKinsey, 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions.
There is real bottom-line value associated with leveraging omnichannel platform technology designed to improve CX. According to analyst firm Forrester, “companies that put the customer at the center of their leadership, strategy, and operations grow revenue, profits, employee engagement, and retain customers at more than twice the rate of other firms. Those firms’ customers are 2.4x more likely to stay with them, 2.7x more likely to spend more with them, and 10x more likely to recommend them. Furthermore, loyal customers will pay up to 200% more for a preferred brand.”
To bring customer experience to the highest level, enterprises should not only embrace omnichannel platforms but also prioritize technology that improves employee experience (EX). That’s because employees are a critical, front facing resource for driving customer satisfaction. To improve EX and by extension CX, enterprises should provide secure, compliant mobile messaging tools that facilitate communication and collaboration and streamline workflows. When communication and collaboration are easy and productivity is enhanced, employees are happier and that translates to better customer service and more satisfied customers.
To compete in the post-pandemic economy requires brands to meet customers where they are and create a personal connection with them that enhances engagement, increases retention and builds brand loyalty. Platforms designed to enhance CX and EX are strategic enablers for creating deeper connections with customers that boost sales and improve growth.
